01-19-2017, 02:20 PM
(01-19-2017, 11:18 AM)David Horn Wrote:(01-18-2017, 05:01 PM)Eric the Green Wrote: As has been pointed out, if voting for Trump was voting against the Establishment, it seems he has appointed the Establishment to all his top assistants and advisors. The people who voted for "Trump as anti-Establishment" were merely conned by a reality-TV star.
Obama didn't go far enough against Wall Street, although he went farther than Bush, who started the process without the accountability requirements which Obama added, and without the Wall Street reforms in Dodd-Frank that the Republicans and the Tea-Party-so-called "populists" are crying to repeal. So, Obama was not far enough left for "populist-socialists" like me, but that doesn't mean he wasn't farther Left and more anti-establishment than the Republicans and Trump, whom many were duped to vote for.
So my statement is not wrong at all; no-one here is duped into thinking that Democrats are reliably Left or socialist-populist. The Reagan memes have continued their domination through all administrations Democrat or Republican for 37 years. As for Democrat vs. Republican, there is a clear difference in degree. But these two parties do not represent Left vs. Right in any absolute sense.
Hurting them less is not the same as easing their pain. That's the long and short of it.
The recession was cured; more people got jobs. More got health insurance, and lives were saved. Another crash was prevented. Jobs were created in new clean energy. Fewer people were killed in needless wars. I'd say Obama eased some pain.